Sumit Singhal Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination.
The Leadenhall Building in London, England by Roger Stirk Harbour + Partners
July 11th, 2013 by Sumit Singhal
Article source: Roger Stirk Harbour + Partners
BACKGROUND
Joint venture between British Land and Oxford Properties
Designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners
610,000 sq ft of lettable floor space over 46 floors
736ft (224m) high
Located directly opposite Lloyd’s of London in the heart of the City of London.
Approximately 80% of the construction cost will be spent on components prefabricated off site and then delivered and assembled on site. This advanced form of construction not only creates programme efficiency but it has significant health and safety benefits
Virtually all of the structural steelwork will still be visible when the building is complete
The mega frame columns and beams are connected together by nodes; each takes approximately 600 man hours to fabricate
The use of pre-stressed ‘megabolts’, (threaded steel rods of up to 76mm diameter) to connect all the megaframe joints is very unusual and more akin to offshore oil exploration or bridge engineering than building engineering (in terms of scale)
The design of the north core primary columns and floors as steel ‘tables’, just three per level, is also very unusual. With floor slab and services pre-installed off-site, this is ‘volumetric’ prefabricated modular construction. To achieve this, the design has been highly resolved and co-ordinated at an early stage. This advanced construction technology has not been used in the UK before to build the primary structure within a commercial office tower of this height
Using pre-cast solid concrete floors is an innovative and highly efficient solution. This method was chosen as it saves time, as well as reducing noise and waste on site. It also significantly improves floor tolerances for occupiers with positive benefits to fitting out
The Leadenhall Building’s unique architectural style and scale will make an elegant and striking addition to the London skyline
The development’s tapering shape, when viewed from the West, will appear to ‘lean away’ from St Paul’s Cathedral
The tapered form provides a variety of floor plate sizes. Available floor plates range from 16,000 sq ft on the lower floors to 6,000 sq ft at the top of the building. All have spectacular views over London
The unique building design, with an external mega frame structure providing the lateral stability, rather than a central concrete core, with an off-set self-contained service core, provides the strong external architectural form of the building as well as offering occupiers unparalleled quality of accommodation with regular, highly efficient, clear and flexible floor plates with uninterrupted views across the floors
The seven storey landscaped open Galleria space at the base of the building, covering nearly half an acre, will be on a scale unprecedented in London. The space will include formal lawns, seating, mature trees, retail units and an actively managed events space, creating a vibrant and welcoming environment open to the public
Overlooking the Galleria will be a new high class restaurant serving the building and the wider City market
All signage at ground level will be in the building’s ‘house style’ controlled by the landlord, to further reinforce The Leadenhall Building brand
The large main double height building reception will be accessed via a triple bank of escalators leading from the Galleria space
The building is set to achieve BREEAM ‘Excellent’ environmental rating.
LEASING PROGRESS
International insurance company, Aon, exchanged a binding Agreement for Lease in November 2011, to occupy 191,000 sq ft of the building on the lowers floors, (levels 4-13)
Following the deal Aon announced that it was moving its global headquarters from Chicago to The Leadenhall Building
They also have options to take up a further 85,000 sq ft on levels 14-18
The Aon space will be accessed from a separate self-contained reception area
In December 2012 the leading specialist insurance and reinsurance business Amlin plc. signed non-binding Heads of Terms on 111,000 sq ft of space
The space is on levels 18-24 and level 45 with options to take up to a further 36,500 sq ft
This results in The Leadenhall Building being 51% pre-let with the remaining space let on a floor by floor basis, depending on occupier needs.
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